EDUC 5272: Advance Practices for Teaching STEM in Elementary and Middle School

Written Assignment 6

Instructor: Dr Jamie Taber

Date : October 12, 2022

A flipped classroom is one in which students can access their lesson or instruction both from

online resources and face to face in a classroom. The internet or online instruction usually

precede the face to face. In that way, students get to view learning materials and interact with

them before they are used in the face setting. Kelly & Denson (etal) believe that flipped

classroom dates back to Alison Kings paper that strongly recommends teachers being facilitators

instead of lecturer and putting the responsibility of learning on the students instead of being the

giver or holder of all information. This thinking is correct because with flipped classroom

lectures and reading of books to students become irrelevant. Instead, students can go through

materials independently and even teach themselves the content. The materials presented to

students can be in the form of videos, audio recording or online documents. Since students can

view presentation outside of class or online, there is usually more time for discussion to be

facilitated in the classroom and for active learning to take place. Students get the opportunity to

go over the material as many times as is necessary to deepen their understanding of concepts.

(YouTube, 2014)

According to Lynch (2015) there are four pillars of a flipped classroom. These are flexible

environment, learning culture, intentional content, and professional educator.

Before teachers consider using flipped classroom as an option, they must properly plan how to

use classroom time to enhance learning. They must have the relevant materials prepared for

online use and they must teach students how to make use of the online materials. (Harvard

University et.al)
Rationale for Flipped Classroom in STEM Learning

Flipping the classroom is excellent approach to STEM learning because in STE, students need

opportunities to explore, investigate discover and create. The various online sources and platform

that are available make this easy for students. The teacher who is knowledgeable of how to use

the flipped classroom can easily create links that lead students to sites where they want them to

read or research on certain topics or go to certain cites such as Code.org or Khans Academy to

do coding and learning on their own. Collaboration is an important aspect in STEM learning. A

flipped classroom creates opportunities for students to collaborate on materials and give their

feedback back in real time. Teachers can also give their feedback in real time. All students can

work on the materials at their own pace outside of the classroom, then they all get to come to the

classroom with similar backgrounds and knowledge and be able to share in classroom / face to

face activities. When all students are exposed to the information before time in the classroom,

discussions are lively and engaging and there is more time to clear up any misconceptions and to

engage in activities.

The following steps are suggested for teachers who want to start flipped classroom

First plan and identify what learning goals you want and the materials that will help to achieve

these learning goals. Next, create the materials that will be used online, this could be links and

videos created by other persons, personal recordings of lecturers or personally created word

documents. After that the online information should be released to students. Next, the teacher

should write assessments to collect information on learning that has taken place. Following that,

the teacher should use the information gathered from about learning online to design in class

activities that will support greater learning. After this the face to face class session should
follow. The final step should be the reflection, in which the process and the result of the flipped

learning is considered or evaluated. (Havard university (2022)

Example of flipped learning lesson

For this flipped classroom I will use Microsoft Teams as the online learning platform. I will use

this to teach a Math lesson on the topic Perimeter to my 3rd grade students over a period of 2

days.

Objectives.

By the end the lesson students will be able to

1.define the term Perimeter.

2.Identify shapes which perimeter they can find

3.Measure the perimeter of given shapes.

4. Work collaboratively in groups to find perimeter of objects in the classroom.

Activities

1.Students will use the following this link to learn about perimeter.

2. Write down the meaning of the word perimeter.

3 Find different shapes, make representations of them and in their notebooks and find their

perimeter.

4 In class students will share their findings of about perimeter.

shapes they drew.

6.Work in groups of 3 in class to measure and record the perimeter of different classroom objects

such as computer, top of desks, books etc.

Students will be assessed on how much they did at home and how well they worked in groups to

complete their in-class activities.

In conclusion, flipped learning may not work for every classroom and teachers definitely need

training and exposure to the different online platform, to be able to effectively use this approach.

However, it is worth giving a try and it is a means of using up the technology which most

students have at their disposal and placing some of the responsibility for their learning on them.

It gives them an opportunity to built background knowledge, build their confidence and make the

classroom a place where every one can come prepared to engage and share what they have

learned independently.
References.

Flipped classrooms. Derek Bok Center, Harvard University. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2022,
from https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/flipped-classrooms

 Flipped Learning Network .(n.d.). https://flippedlearning.org/category/how_to/

Kelly, D., & Denson, C. (2017). STEM teacher efficacy in flipped classrooms. Journal of STEM
Education, 18(4), 43-50. Download PDF version

Lynch, M. (2016, March 28). The four pillars of flipped learning. The Edvocate. Retrieved
October 12, 2022, from https://www.theedadvocate.org/the-four-pillars-of-flipped-
learning/

Resources to flip your classroom. Study.com. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2022, from
https://study.com/teach/flipped-classroom.html

Steps of a flip - home | projects at Harvard. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2022, from
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/flippingkit/files/steps_of_a_flip.pdf

YouTube. (2014). YouTube. Retrieved October 12, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?